Sports Weekend

Fixtures counting towards the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, are underway in Melbourne. On Friday, in the second round of the women’s singles, the 10th-seed, all-Romanian pair made up of Irina Begu and Monica Niculescu defeated the all-Australian pair, Jessica Moore and Ellen Perez, in three sets, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Also in the second round, a pair made up of Raluca Olaru and Ukraine’s Olga Savciuk conceded defeat to Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-2.

It‘s news from football now, as several Romanian League One teams are having their training stages in Turkey. At the sports complex in Regnum, Belek, Poli Iasi ended in a one-all draw their game against Russian side FC Rostov. The opener was provided by the Russians on 39 minutes, while Poli Iasi’s Andrei Sin came up with the equalizer, on 54 minutes.

It was also a Russian team that FC Botosani faced during the same training stage. Headcoach Costel Enache’s trainees drew against FC Tosno, 2-all. Mircea Axente drew first blood on 21 minutes. Fifteen minutes later, the Russians managed the equalizer, through Nikola Trujici, while seven minutes into the second half, FC Tosno’s Aleksei Skvortov scored again. The fate of the match was sealed by FC Botosani’s Andrei Dumitras, on 76 minutes.

The third Romanian team that took on a Russian opponent was Gaz Metan Medias. Cristian Pustai’s trainees lost to Dynamo Moscow nil-one. On the 81st minute, Dynamo’s Nikolai Obolski turned a penalty kick into a goal.

Another confrontation, also pitting a Romanian team against a Russian side, was hosted by the Maxx Royan Hotel in Belek. Romania’s current football champions Viitorul Constanta took on Luci Vladivostok, 4-2. Scoring for Viitorul were Denis Dragus, who scored two goals, Cristian Gavra and Alexi Pitu. Scoring for Luci Vladivostok were Sebastian Mladen, through an own-goal, and Andrey Myazin.